Apple released iOS 18 to the general public on Sept. 16, a week after the company announced its new iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch Series 10 and more at its September event. The update brings many new features to your iPhone, including text effects in Messages and more ways to personalize your lock screen. But one new sought-after feature is Rich Communication Services support in Messages — which Apple barely mentioned RCS messaging at its WWDC presentation in June.
Apple is finally bringing RCS to iPhones with iOS 18.
If your carrier supports RCS, here’s how to make sure it’s working on your iPhone.
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps near the bottom of the menu.
3. Tap Messages.
4. Tap RCS Messaging under Text Messaging.
4. Tap the toggle next to RCS Messaging.
Now messaging Android devices will feel more like messaging another iPhone — but you’ll still see those green bubbles. And if you want to disable RCS, follow the above steps again.
If you updated your iPhone to iOS 18, your carrier supports RCS and you enabled it on your iPhone, but RCS isn’t working for you, you might need to restart your iPhone.
For more on iOS 18, here’s my iOS 18 review, all the ways to customize your iPhone’s home screen and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what to know about the iOS 18.1 developer beta.
